The Miners were impressive in the opening term at the Minerdome,  shooting out to an eight point lead at the first break.  Ballarat’s usual suspects were again at the fore of the charge, with Earnest Ross, Ollie Bailey and Roy Booker all hitting the scoreboard.

Ballarat continued to steadily clear away from the Rangers in the second period of play, with the Miners’ talls in Bailey and Ross making an impact on the scoreboard and the court at large.

The home side looked set to run away with the points in the latter stage of the third term as the lead ballooned out to 18 points, however the visitors continued to push, continually trimming the lead in the final term to fall just two points short.

Miners coach Eric Hayes said while his side played a solid first half,  teamwork began to drop off in the latter part of the match when the result looked beyond question.

“When we played together as a team we played pretty good basketball, but when they made a run we went away from what got us in the lead and our defence started to break down,” Hayes said.

The Miners were aided by the return of big man Chris Smith, who returned from a calf injury which saw him on the sidelines for five weeks.  While Smith saw over 10 minutes of court time against the Rangers on Saturday night, Hayes said it would take some time before the 208 centimetre centre returned to form.

Hayes was again full of praise for short-term player Craig Moller, who was active across the court despite his unassuming figures of seven points and four rebounds.  “He contested shots and made it tough for guys to make shots and ran the floor really well,” Hayes said.  “When I look at the stats I don’t think it represented his game.”

The Miners will now look ahead to the second of their four consecutive home fixtures against Nunawading next Saturday.